we must say so::

Vinyl Records and Turntables Are Gaining Sales

First thought: that scene in Shakespeare In Love when Dame Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth comes up to a puddle and pauses, waits for a courtly male to cover the mud, sees none, and so stomps across saying “Too late, too late.” That’s the New York Times on trend pieces: the Lord Wessex of arts sections.

Second thought: I don’t get a physical copy of the Times, but I hope there was a pull quote and that it was: “But all the really great stuff in our lives comes from a root of passion or love.”

10:19 AM // December 08 2009

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Okay go home. But in case you’re interested, your husband was murdered. Somebody’s been dumping thousands of tons of water from the city’s reservoirs, and we’re supposed to be in the middle of a drought. He found out about it and he was killed. There’s a waterlogged drunk in the morgue, involuntary manslaughter, if anybody wants to take the trouble, which they don’t. It seems like half the city is trying to cover it all up, which is fine by me. But Mrs. Mulwray, I goddamn near lost my nose. And I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think that you’re hiding something.

11:48 PM // November 23 2009

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Apparent categorical impulsives

Understated Dramas Featuring a Strong Female Lead

Quirky Movies

Visually-striking Dark Movies

Witty Dysfunctional-Family Comedies

Action & Adventure to watch instantly

8:31 PM // November 08 2009

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This one goes out to the final, gasping death of self-coded high-school websites

11:13 AM // October 06 2009

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Tracking central

2:22 PM // September 22 2009

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Grossman calls an orange an apple, and then proceeds to imagine what would have happened if that apple (which is still an orange) had produced a line of apples.

And, he asserts, we would have been better off with this imaginary line of apples (which began with a misnamed orange).

— Andrew Seal, at Coversational Reading, speaking on the argument of Lev Grossman’s “Good Books Don’t Have To Be Hard,” which argues for a “revolution from below, up from the supermarket racks” in literature, wherein plot defeats all other things, except neither totally nor really

10:10 PM // August 29 2009

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12:59 AM // August 24 2009

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Which will please millions, even if Stewart Lee won’t be among their number. ‘I was talking to Ann Widdecombe about this, and she said, “I think it’s good if people are reading anything”. I don’t agree. I think reading Dan Brown is like being spoon-fed until your tastebuds are destroyed.’

— “The Key to Dan Brown’s Success,” Andrew Collins in Times Online

12:29 PM // August 17 2009

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3:34 PM // August 11 2009

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Road House, without the benefit of a director with the oeuvre of Verhoeven, is certainly one of the most quizzical documents of the late eighties. Is the film self-aware? Swayze’s winning performance gives nothing away, allowing the audience to fully identify with his rampant bad-assery. There is no simple answer to the question the film must prompt to any contemporary viewer, just as it did to Ebert in 1989: “Is this for real?” It’s that anxiety of indulgence, of undecidability, this central ambiguity that makes Road House such a joy to watch. The film does not force you to watch it through any particular ideological lens. Celebrate Road House’s 20th anniversary by giving it a proper re-viewing; whether you bring your ironic vision is up to you.

— “Road House, Paul Verhoeven, Modern Action Films, and the Ironic Vision of the Viewer” at biblioklept

4:11 PM // August 10 2009

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